Skills gap threatening economy post-Brexit

The outgoing chief of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has warned that the UK is facing an ever widening skills gap – and it will get worse before it gets better. Sir Michael leaves the educational watchdog after 5 years in charge, and has said that although many schools are improving, the outcomes further along the educational chain

‘Brexit effect real’

“The decision to leave the European Union has thrown this issue into even sharper relief. As a nation, we can either intervene to inject the system with the vision, skills and energy it needs, or we can be content with the status quo and the consequences of our failure to improve the quality and status of technical education over many years.”

Wilshaw pointed out that while schools performance is genrally on an upward trend, the proportion of further education colleges rated as good or better had declined from 77% to 71% over the course of the year.

“Many further education colleges are facing a period of continued turmoil while the quality of apprenticeship programmes remains patchy,” Wilshaw said.